The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 7/7/08

[BlueIris]

"Icarus Descending"

I ride my bicycle to work, leaving earlier than usual,
so I can go slow. Everything looks normal,
the air is fresh, the copper beech trees and the ginkgoes
lush in their end-of-summer foliage,
the street clean from last night's rain.
The men from Public Works
have been here lately and patched a few holes.
Somebody must have complained,
but it wasn't me. The only blemish
on my contentment is the strange sensation
that somebody very like me is falling through the air
right now, close behind me,
from a great height falling—having leapt, or been pushed—
but anyhow no longer cradling his despair,
making light of it, arms outstretched,
though his corduroy sleeves cannot undulate
like feathered wings in figure eights
and he is dropping. How foolish to try
to see him. I don't even twist to look,
the way a dream just after you have woken
has no words for you.

—Carol Edelstein

[BlueIris]

1. But, but...come on. This is so great.

What do I have to do, beg?

[BlueIris]

2. Kick.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. My dear BlueIris!

I'm sorry, I haven't been around much in the last few hours...

But this is a splendid work!

So vivid, so real...

I'm liking it a lot!

Thank you!

:hug:

[BlueIris]

4. Thanks, C-Peg!

I was hoping you in partcular wouldn't find it too abstract or bizarre.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Oh, not at all...

This one feels very much rooted in reality to me!

[BlueIris]

7. The rest of this month is pretty reality-based...

...though the poems may wind up being a little too reality based for some.

[otherlander]

6. Usually I don't respond to these threads

mostly because you said marijuana users are sad, pitiful, massively unhealthy losers... but this poem is just mind-blowingly great.